Sarah Sandford from her mother, Belinda Sandford
“we got had the death of Mr E C Nelson by the wood saw machine the wheel burst and struck him on the right thigh and on the right side of his head and eye he is gone to his Mother who died when he was quite young …” Belinda Sandford, January 21, 1856
Dear Sarah
I have bin in Vincennes two weeks and have not heard one word from home only by the papers the last Beacon we got had the death of Mr E C Nelson by the wood saw machine the wheel burst and struck him on the right thigh and on the right side of his head and eye he is gone to to his Mother who died when he was quite young how important it is that [we] live a christian life so as we are not afraid to die our families in Paris that is all of our own folks was all well when I left home E B had quite bad spell of the spleen after the chills left him he was a going to start to school the seventh of Jan
I left on the fourth I have not heard from Silvanus since he was one hundred thirty miles beyond St Louis I have written to him to Little Rock Arkansas I am now agoing to write to Victoria Texas and see if I can hear from him there Hiram went to N York about two weeks ago I was at DRS the evening we came from Paris Lib is as fat as a pig Silvanus Howard is growing finely and little Phebe is as lively as a cricket I do want see her as well as all of you it seemes agreate while since you left Paris give my love to Syntha I saw her two Brothers a few days before I came here Solomon and Andrew they were well & had just returned from the west. –
Phebe has a very bad cold she took cold while she was up to Paris and at Charlies her cold is not so as to keep her [in] bead she is atending to her house she has a Dutch to attend and wash and cook but not as good a one as Mary over at Smiths the folks are all well Pem and Sarah have had chills this fall and winter are both as well as ever Mr Smith has a bad place on one of his feet it is a hard lump on the top of his foot makes him very lame at times it does not pain him all the time as bad as at others
I have ben to Church three times since I have been here twice to the Methodist once to the Presbyterian Friday the 18 there was a supper given to the Lutherian Church by all but the Roman Catholicks the People here turned out and helped them but they would not help in return Mrs Smith Pem Edward and my self attended it was to help them finish there Church there was four hundred thirty seven dollars made up for them we went at eight in the evening and stayed untill ten the St Louis cars threw in twenty three or four dollars the supper was at the eating house of the St Louis R R
write as soon as you can after you get this B S to my Daughter Sarah
Name: Phillip F. Schlee
E- mail: schlee@ksu.edu
Notes: This is a letter to Sarah Sandford from her mother, Belinda Sandford, written on January 21, 1856. Belinda Sandford (1798- 1866)was my great, great grandmother; in 1819, in Cincinnati, Ohio, she married Isaac Sandford (1796-1853), and they settled on a farm near Vermilion, Illinois, in what later became Edgar County.
Belinda was the daughter of Judge Luke Foster of Hamilton County, Ohio. Isaac and Belinda Sandford had eleven children: Hiram, Harriet, Phebe Foster, James Halsey, Daniel Reeder, Sylvanus, Charles Seneca, Thomas H., Nathaniel, Sarah and Edward Bruce. Isaac Sandford fought in the Black Hawk War and later became Brigadier-General of the Illinois State Militia.
Belinda Sandford died on New Year’s day in 1866 — her obituary gives the account of her death: “For some time before her departure she complained of a kind of heart disease. On New-Year’s day, learning that old and highly-esteemed friend, Mrs. Alexander, was thought to be dying, she started to see her, and reached the house just as her old friend was breathing her last. She put her hand on the door-latch, and, as it opened, she fell into the arms of her daughter, who accompanied her, and her sainted spirit accompanied that of her friend, and both passed together to join the general assembly of the Church of the first-born in heaven. Lovely and pleasant in their lives, in death they were not divided. They were carried to the same church at the same hour, and the funerals of both were attended by a numerous concourse of weeping friends, and together they were borne to the silent city of the dead to await the summons that bids the sleeping dust arise.”